16 Jun 2012
Posted by Isaiah Smart 
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I don’t know how everyone else goes about listening to mixtapes but the first thing I look in to after the artist is the cover. For me visuals are important, whether it be videos, album art, etc.
XV, a growing newcomer to the music scene, brought a great cover to the table with his newest project, Popular Culture. From intro to outro, Popular Culture is lased with well-executed tracks and witty lines. The tracks are titled based off of pop culture ideals over the last few decades. But not only the titles contain features of society’s favorite topic but also the actual content of the songs. “Be There, Be Square” is one of the leading tracks of the mixtape going against the “keep the squares out yo circle” campaign. “The Kick” follows the hit movie Inception. XV talks about living out his dreams as well as hardships with the possibility that none of it is real. He gives the listener a glimpse via audio into his life as he waits for “the kick” to confirm that none of this is really happening. One of my favorite tracks off the project is, “Aaahh! Real Monsters” featuring ScHoolboy Q & B.o.B, which is also one of the last tracks on Popular Culture. The track was produced by The Awesome Sound, who produced a majority of the mixtape. The song is testimony of the effects of failed relationships, love, and hate. “You made a monster out of me” is repeated throughout the track as a reminder of those effects. Overall, the mixtape is dopeness in a digital file. Production was great, and as stated before, the tracks were well executed. Good job XV, welcome to the floozy network. Dream On.
Download Popular Culture Here
